Harikrishna Crushes Aronian With Beautiful Knight Maneuver

Pentala Harikrishna's beautiful knight maneuver vs Levon Aronian was the highlight of the FIDE Grand Prix's sixth round. The Indian grandmaster joined Alexander Grischuk and Teimour Radjabov in the lead as these players drew their mutual game.

Harikrishna's victory got him to plus two, a score that tends to be enough to be in the lead at these Grand Prix events. After a round with five decisive games, four players are tied for fourth place, with half a point less.

The all-Russian encounter between Nepomniachtchi and Inarkiev was won by the first player. Eljanov lost his second game in a row, this time to Li Chao. Rapport's bad form continued vs Riazantsev, and Hou beat Salem as Black.

Geneva Grand Prix | Round 6 Results

Bo.

No.

Fed

Name

Rtg

Pt.

Result

Pt.

Fed

Name

Rtg

No.

1

4

Grischuk

2761

3½

½ - ½

3½

Radjabov

2724

12

2

1

Aronian

2809

3

0 - 1

3

Harikrishna

2737

8

3

5

Svidler

2749

3

½ - ½

3

Mamedyarov

2800

2

4

14

Jakovenko

2703

2½

½ - ½

2½

Giri

2775

3

5

6

Nepomniachtchi

2742

2½

1 - 0

2½

Inarkiev

2707

13

6

10

Li Chao

2735

2½

1 - 0

2½

Eljanov

2739

7

7

11

Gelfand

2728

2½

½ - ½

2½

Adams

2736

9

8

15

Rapport

2694

1½

0 - 1

2

Riazantsev

2654

17

9

18

Salem

2638

1½

0 - 1

1

Hou Yifan

2666

16

Pentala Harikrishna said that so far he wasn't looking at the standings, and just "expected a hard game" against Levon Aronian. Well, after this one he surely knows his place in the leaderboard!

The Indian grandmaster said he was slightly worse out of the opening due to the doubled b-pawns, but there was counterplay for Black. Two weakening pawn moves by Aronian (20.f4 and 21.b5) turned this counterplay into a strong attack, as the Armenian player completely missed the tactic 22...Ne5!.

In Harikrishna's hands, Black's knight was like a maul that crushed White's bastion little by little. Aronian's only escape was an endgame where Black's passed a-pawn was just too strong.

"I had to be careful," said Hari. "Levon is a very tricky opponent; he's always finding some resources."

Li Chao won a very nice game against Pavel Eljanov. He used an idea of Mamedyarov in the opening, and revealed that it wasn't the first time he looked at the Azerbaijani's games for ideas.

"We are both attacking players. Sometimes he follows me and sometimes I follow him. But we never talk about openings."

FIDE Press Officer Goran Urosevic spoke with Li Chao after the game.

Before the rest day Richard Rapport managed to break his losing streak with a victory, but on Wednesday he lost is fourth game in the tournament, to Alexander Riazantsev.

"I'm very happy!" smiled Riazantsev, who not only won his first game of the tournament, but of the whole Grand Prix.

His treatment of 1.b3 was excellent, and Black was clearly better out of the opening. However, the trainer of the Russian women's team made some inaccuracies which allowed Rapport to get back into the game. Later Riazantsev took control again.

WGM Anna Burtasova spoke with Alexander Riazantsev after the game.

Last but not least, Hou Yifan also scored her first win of the tournament. She beat Salem Saleh who, like Rapport, drew only one game so far.

After giving White a double e-pawn and playing 17...Kh8, "Black can already hope for something," said Hou. "Objectively it's equal but only Black could try to find some ideas to improve the position."

She admitted that at some point she lost her advantage, but it takes a computer to see all the ideas behind the move 30.e5. A queen sac if one of them.

The Geneva Grand Prix takes place July 6-15 in the Hotel Le Richemond in Geneva. The prize fund is €130,000 / $148,520. The time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.